Finally!! Euro Delivery Done, the Perks and the Perils: A Blog with Pics

Hello all, finally went to Munich to pick up the car and head out for my 8 day roadtrip "over there". I kept a running diary of what was great and not so great and it's ended up being a long blog....but interesting if you'd care to know about the perks....and the perils of Euro Delivery. On the ED forum in Bimmerfest, the info is all wonderful but that's just the problem....it's ALL wonderful (well except for a couple of recent reports submitted by Bimmerfest members, eg. alefcole who experienced a H&R in a parking lot). And for people who are fanatic about their cars (clean, polished, ding/dent free, etc, etc particularly when they are brand new), well the truth is that ED might just cause you ED of another nature!!

Forgive some of the language that's coming up.....there was no other way to express some of the frustrations. Hopefully the pics and the humour make up for it. So here's the story of the M3 that became an Individual after 14 months of planning and fulfulling the dream of owning one. We'll fast forward to:

May 8th:

Departure day, got up and went to the BBC website to get updates on the Volcano which had been causing everyone grief. Great news that morning....airports in Spain and Southern France had been shut down and travel was being disrupted or lengthened and further info wasn't available yet. Stupid f'n volcano. But I went to the airport anyways, I was tired of having to think of cancellation. Similarly my M Div rep was tired of my whining about Volvcano issues and she challenged me with the "no risk, no fun" line in her last e-mail to me a few days earlier. I don't back down on challenges like that!!

Flew on Jet Airways (an Indian airline if you can access their service). Wow, are they ever good. And cheap. Their "Premiere Class" was $2300 Cdn return (Toronto to Munich) and you get a BED for your seat. Equivalent costs for crappy Air Canada would have been around $6000. Service and food was just excellent. Friendliest flight attendants I've ever experienced. And the opportunity to sleep properly was worth the money. Anyways, flying this strange new airline was a part of the adventure and it was definately one of the perks. Only thing with Jet Airways is their hub is Brussels so you can't do a direct flight. No problem I thought. But the ash cloud that night added an extra 1.5 hours to our flight time and I missed my Lufthansa connection the next morning. So a couple extra hours were in order until Lufthansa could get me on to another flight. Good news out of this was that Rolf - Bimmerfest's famous Munich transportation guy who taxis ED customers to and from the Welt and the airport- was now free to pick me up.

Ended up in my hotel by 1:00 PM on the 9th of May. Stayed at the Four Points Sheraton beside the Olympiapark complex ('72 Munich Olympics) and while not the prettiest hotel in the world, man was it ever convenient. 5 minutes walk to the Ubahn subway which will take you into downtown Munich in 4 stops. 5 minutes walk to BMW Welt, their museum and factory and 10 seconds walk to a pedestrian mall at the back of the hotel where there were bakeries, deli's, restaurants, liquor (thank God) and everything you'd ever need to do Europe on the cheap if you didn't want to have to pay for fancy restaurants all the time. Another perk. And the staff were just great.

Had a couple of drinks after check-in and then wandered over to the Welt for a quick look. You've all seen pics, what a fantastic facility. I wandered through real quickly 'cause I didn't want to spoil the delivery experience next day. Took one neat pic against the glass wall of the Welt which refected the BMW Museum and the BMW "4 pistons" corporate tower. Wandered around for another couple hours sightseeing, had some deli food for supper followed by a few drinks (OK, 5 drinks) and off to bed. A pretty good day!

Got up at 5:00 a.m., just too excited to sleep. My M Div reps were coming to pick me up at 9:00 for the drive to Garching and a tour of the M Div facility. So some leisurely expresso's and breakfast was in order. Lots of time to make sure I had my DL, Passport, camera of course, etc etc ready to go.

Michael arrived right on time in an X6 M and off to Garching we went (about a 30 minute drive). Michael is an intern at BMW M and works for Christine who was the CA in charge of my car. Great guy and hopes to stay at BMW once he's obtained his Masters Degree. And he drove the M truck like it's supposed to be driven. Man these things never cease to amaze with their power. My goal that morning btw was to have an up-close look at the M5 and M1 prototypes....and anything else that looked "interesting". So we got there and through the gates and then right to the back of the facility to the M Studios. Camera had to remain in the X for now. There were 2 of the M5 protos with the usual camoflage sitting in the parking lot, a bunch of M3's but no new 1 and the mule for our Competition package cars. So inside we went where Christine was waiting for us. We'd met in Toronto twice over the past year while she was overseeing BMW M stuff in Canada. What a great person she is.

Anyways, we had some coffees and I was given the tour of the M Studio which also caters to Individual customers. Interesting stuff.....the prototype of the last generation CSL, an M6 in the new Frozen Sepang Bronze color, an Azurite 5 ser with a stunning new prototype "M Package" interior that I think might have been for the M5...disguised as a 550!! It was WAY more aggressive than regular sport package seating and when I sat in it it reeked of real "M". Of course I asked.....all I was told was that it was a prototype. I was allowed to photo some of the inside of the studio but not this interior. The car under wraps was an M3 in a brand new color (not Frozen Black) that I wasn't allowed to even look at let alone photograph. Hmmmm??? Oh well.

Then outside to the compound again for a closer look at the M5 mules. Really ratty and ill-fitting panels when you're up close. These were million dollar cars I was told. No doubt. The interiors were bone stock but underneath you could see the prototype M chassis. And then a bonus....one of the engineers came out with his laptop and prepared to go for a drive. So I waited for him to start up and leave.....what a nice sound but at this stage, not a great deal of difference from our M3's at startup. When the car got back down to normal idle, well you could tell that it was a mule 'cause you could start to hear things rattling in the engine compartment. Not too impressive but pretty cool nonetheless. And the M1 or 1M....damn, it was in France at BMW's test track that day. And if some BMW people have their way, the car won't be called "M1", despite customer feedback. They're inclined to go with the "1M" moniker at this point. Time will tell I guess.

Pics are self explanatory, bottom photo at the X6 M is Christine and Michael just before we drove off to the Welt.

So another quick drive in the X6 M to The Welt but on the way I was given a quick drive-by of all of the other BMW facilities in the city, located between Garching and Munich. Wow does BMW ever take up a lot of property. First went by their engineering centre where 8000 employees design our cars, BMW bikes, MINI's and Roll Royces. Then drove by the R&D where all those spy photos are taken with the grey steel gates in the background. Two X3's passed us but you've seen the photos already - they were camo'd of course. Then saw their wind tunnel facility (looks like a smaller version of the Welt), some more of their admin offices including those for MINI, and finally the M Engine facility where all of our motors are assembled and then shipped to Regensburg....holy shit, was I impressed.

We got to the Welt just before noon and we parked outside where some lucky devil was just finishing off their delivery of a SG M3 and getting ready to hit the road. (Pic 1). Then inside where Christine checked me in at the front counter (Pic 2) and then we were off to the Delivery Deck right away because 12:30 was supposed to be the magic moment. Wow, what an impressive place inside. The delivery area is split up into 2 areas....one for the business end (Pic 3) where you get all of your paperwork and the other is the "lounge" where you can sit, eat, drink....whatever (Pic 4). Very, very classy.

I also needed to do the factory tour and the BMW Museum today but found out I couldn't fit things in. Christine arranged for my delivery to be postponed till the afternoon and they whisked me off to the factory tour (3 Ser sedans and wagons). It's located just across the street from the Welt and it was well worth the 2+ hours. They do everything there. Very different from one of the Ford tours I took in Detroit. Example, alot of our domestic vehicle contents are outsourced - like seating and panel trim, etc. At the BMW plant, it's all put together in one place. Right from the stamping to final diagnostic testing before the cars head to their transporters, it's all "one stop shopping". Pretty neat....but no cameras allowed unfortunately.

Got back to the Welt at 2:20 PM and completed my paperwork where they give you your insurance package, licencing info, etc. Had time for a quick bite and a drink and then the clock on the wall said "1440", time to go (Pic 5).

Christine accompanied me and we met our delivery expert Matt who took us to the next lower level and lit up the car (Pic 6). And the rest.....was just a blur. It was really exciting to finally see and sit in the car you've wanted all your life. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. The car was perfect, just as ordered. And the color combination between the Monte Carlo outside and the rust brown inside was pretty bold....just the look I wanted.

Here's the spec's real quick (Pic's 6 through 10)

M/C Blue Outside - I'm so glad they allowed me to have it, it's perfect for the car.

Rust Brown inside with extended leather + console, shift boot and brake handle in rust brown. Contrast stitching in anthracite blue which picks up some of the silver trim inside and the Monte Carlo outside.

Piano black interior trim with the "///M" logo lasered into the passenger side.

Short shift with ZHP knob and extra leather for the boot so that it can "sit up" and bundle around the bottom of the knob rather than form a bowl shape.....I hope you guys know what I mean, the pics should show the difference. The extra leather on the boot and the way it sits makes the 6mt look too cool. I love it.

All the other factory options are in the car and of course the Comp Package. My only disappointment was that my black comp. wheels weren't available yet. They go into production for the M3 GTS in June and M Div will be shipping a set to me, mounted with tires even, as soon as they're available. They should be here by the time I get the car back in Canada anyways so no big deal. And I'm ending up with two sets of wheels/tires which is just a bonus. Maybe winters will end up on the silver set 'cause this car is just screaming for the black ones.

Back to the story....probably spent about 2 hours going over the car and especially the Navi 'cause I was going to need it first thing next morning. The rest of the controls (radio, etc via IDrive) was pretty intuitive like all of you have described so no real issues. Christine had to get back to work by 4 PM and she presented me with a beautiful piano wood box with a carbon fibre lid containing two very beautiful and authentic carbon fibre/sterling key chains with "Individual BMW M3" and my name engraved on each. She told me their Rolls Royce people put these together for M Div. Wow, all of this was just too amazing.

So I finished up with Matt and it was time to go. Off to Italy the next morning but the Welt people were nice enough to give me underground parking for the night. The hotel parking lot (because it was originally part of the Olympic housing venue) looked like a battle ground quite frankly and there was no way this car was going there.

Now my anal side kicked in. The car was going OUTSIDE!!! Oh no. Was it waxed??? Yes said Matt. Was it waxed properly??? Yes said Matt. I didn't believe him. Were the wheels waxed??? No said Matt. Oh no, brake dust will probably eat them up and they'll be ruined!!! I spend hours on my new cars, would have spent days on this one probably. And I've already paid for the 3M protection and a teflon coat when it arrives back in Canada (you can't put anything onto a ED car while it's in Europe). Oh for fuck sake, the whole car's going to be ruined!!! And what if someone hits it, dings it or I get stone chips??? Why can't it just sit here at the Welt and BMW give me another car for my tour??? I should have brought my own wax and at least done it "my way" in the basement. I needed a stiff drink about now 'cause I was losing it.

So I jumped into the car, pressed the "start" button, listened to the wonderful motor for a minute and then off I went. Inside the Welt you drive once around the perimeter of the delivery deck and then down a ramp to an automatic door that lets you out to the road. Take a big breath Mark, the door's opening and there's the street. But look at all the cars and trucks that could hit me. Fuck. Another big breath and away I went. Once around the big Olympiapark complex and right back to the Welt garage where I parked her for the night and went back to the hotel. Man does this car have potential. Couldn't experience it on this date but I had 8 days on the road ahead of me so there was time to wait. Besides, I needed that drink.

Italy tomorrow, time for dinner, some more sightseeing and....oh yeah, that drink (OK, once again 5 of them). The museum closes at 6 PM so BMW gave me a pass for when I arrived back in Munich on the 18th.

Tuesday. Time to head off for Lago di Garda, Italy to a small hotel that Christine had recommended because of the "beautiful mountain driving". I packed up, had breakfast and then walked over to the Welt to get the car. So far so good. It was sitting there so new and shiney. I played around with the adjustments for awhile, got the radio going and then drove out of the garage. But not before brushing my mirror on the ticket machine. Oh for fuck sake. Got to get over this nervous bullshit.

Drove over to the hotel and navigated one of those stupid multi-level circular ramps to get to the front doors. I hate them. Especially these skinny euro ramps made for little euro cars. And the hood bulge on the M3 doesn't do much for your perception of what's in front of the car. And the ramp had just enough of a spiraling curb to do damage to the rims if you hit them. And those tires on the front of the competition rims are way too skinny to avoid any kind of rim damage if you did brush against something. The back ones are a bit better but BMW should have put something wider on them. Oh well, I handled the ramp just fine, loaded the car, had one last cup of expresso and then programmed the Navi for my destination. Wow, it worked!! Told me I had just over 400 kms to go and 4.5 hrs to do it in. How very optimistic!! Stopped for gas real quickly to top up the tank (the Welt only puts about 1/4 gas into the car for ED, much less to combust I'm told with the hundreds of cars they have stored there waiting for delivery). 98 octane x 43 litres = 65 euros. Yikes!!! Oh well, none of us bought an M3 for gas mileage did we.

65 euros poorer, off I went, through Munich and onto my first autobahn. The car, the gearbox and that motor was just fantastic. I quickly turned off the radio so that I could hear the engine and it was a nice enough day to drive around town with the windows down. Before I go on, I committed myself to following the break-in limits....which I did. And after having completed the trip I can't think of a better way to have broken the car in mechanically than a European tour which has a perfect mix of extreme city and extreme highway (i.e. quick) driving.

I played with the rev range while in town and then got onto the autobahn heading towards Austria. Man what a car!!! What a motor!!! The sounds were intoxicating even keeping the 5500 rev limit in check. Good old Rolph Raffelsieper had explained the road signs, changing speed limits and all that shit to me when he drove me from the airport to my hotel on the first day. So I anxiously awaited the "unlimited" speed areas and was rewarded fairly quickly. I took advantage of my 170 km/h speed limit and for my first time on a public road at this speed, my average of between 130 and 170 was just fine. The German roads are beautiful, well marked (you can see what the speed signs look like in Pic 1) and FREE. They don't have any tolls....or none that I had to pay anyways. Wow. Very impressive.

Had a quick stop at a rest area when I entered Austria (Pic 2). Throughout Europe there are hundreds, probably thousands of these stops that seem to pop up every 5 or 10 minutes. It's incredible. And most of them look like little parks. They sure take care of drivers over there. And then there were the autoroute restaurant & gas stops, about one every 20 or 30 minutes. I hit my first one for lunch in Austria. The best ones are called "Autogrill" and they're everywhere, in most of Western Europe anyways. What fabulous fast food they have. I was really hesitant to eat there but their deli-style stuff is regional and fresh....and reasonably priced (3-4 euros for a decent sized bun, french stick, panini, chiabatta or whatever else you want depending on what country you're in). And double expressos were just as good as any fancy restaurant would offer and only 2.50 euros. These Europeans sure know how to live on the road.

So back onto the road after food, lunch and gas (about 40 euros to top up and my gas gauge was just a little above half) and then into Italy and their autoroute system at about 4 p.m. I was taking my time because I'm a smoker and took advantage of the rest stops every hour or so. Broke up the driving nicely and allowed me to go from "0 to whatever" a whole bunch of times during the day. Windows open of course.

With Italy came some more money grabbing, this time for autoroute tolls. Fuck me, they're expensive. Combined with gas prices I was spending about 120 euros per travelling day. Every time I got to one of those stupid automated gates - with no consideration for english instructions by the way - I'd be paying another 10, 20 or 30 euros depending on my distances. Yikes!!! I had really good intentions to keep track of my gas and toll costs but it got so damned expensive that I gave up and just didn't give a shit anymore. So much for budgeting!!

But I plugged along, paying no consideration to Italy's 130 km/h speed limit like every other Italian that was on the road. Didn't see any police either and their radar traps every once in awhile are well advertised. It rained a bit then cleared. The car was filthy and I was starting to have my anxiety attacks again about the paint getting ruined. I finally saw a large gas station with a sign that said "lave.." something and maybe "agua" and prayed for a self serve car wash. My lucky day. Just had to figure out how to use it, once again no english instructions but I managed to spray her down (but no wiping, I'd also committed to NO WIPING for the whole trip because I didn't have my full wash kit with me. Only used my towel for the glass. All of this was painful but I didn't want any swirl marks...or at least wanted to keep them to a minimum.

I reached my destination town at about 6 p.m. Lago di Garda is a resort area (Pic 3), lots of little towns surrounding a very large lake and completely surrounded by mountains and cliffs. Looks like it might have been some huge volcano thousands of years ago. The roads at the base of the lake are beautiful, the little towns are beautiful and overall the scenery is just amazing. But this is where I started to encounter roundabouts, lots of them from town to town. And tunnels....skinny tunnels, lots of them too (Pic 4) Apparently my problems with roundabouts was due to the fact that I couldn't count the number of exits that they each had. After about 10 of them....and constant re-routing by the Navi lady, I learned to pay attention. The tunnels were neat because of course you can listen to the engine doing what it does best!!!

I finally came to my exit road to head up this exciting "mountain road" that Christine had described. The incline looked to be pretty good and the sign for Tremosine said 15 km. So up I went onto this very skinny one lane road towards the top. It was just beautiful and I thought to myself "how nice, a one way road". But I wondered where the downbound road was. Hmmmm.

Well how f'n stupid was I lol!! After about 10 blind curves on my "one way" road I came face to face with another car...with only room for one of course and thankfully with enough room between us for both to stop. Well how the hell do you do this??? Who backs up (I later learned that the upbound cars are supposed to back up) and where do you back up to??? The curves were a bit wider and there were a few places where the road widened (sort of dug into the mountain sides) but overall, this was starting to suck. So I got by the first car finally and my anxiety level was now at an all time high. How many more km's of this did I have to endure?? (Pic 5)

Long story short, it was a slow climb for the rest of the way and I hated every second of it. And to add insult to injury, this little town at the top of the mountain has similarly styled streets (if you could call them that, (Pic 6) and most of them were marked with "Pedestrians Only" (in Italian of course). I got frustrated, parked the car and walked to the hotel. The owner was nice, told me to disregard those signs 'cause everyone else did, and to drive up and park in this hellish little lot that was further up a hill and into some trees - surrounded by rocks of course with access no wider than the car. Oh for fuck sake, how many more days of this did I sign up for??? My first encounter with perils.

But one of the best meals I've ever eaten made up for this last hour of hell. And of course, lots of cocktails. I may have even exceeded my "5" limit this night. Beautiful views (and a not so beautiful stupid bell tower right beside my window that went off every fucking hour, Pic 7) and pleasant people who ran the hotel made things a bit better. I didn't even think about having to head back down that stupid mountain the next day.

More Perils ahead. Next morning, time to head off to France but that stupid mountain road was playing on my mind. I was looking forward to going back down like I look forward to having diarhhea. Went to get the car out of the parking lot and it was covered in bird crap and leaves and some sap thrown in for good measure. Oh for fuck sake, what a pain in the ass having to dab that shit off. But I had to. Time to attack the mountain again but this time I got smart and waited for a couple of the locals to head out. It was a much quicker ride down than it was up....apparently they don't give a shit about oncoming cars. When they did turn up, the ones going up backed up like they were supposed to. One guy in a new Fiat backed into the mountain and started yelling. Felt bad but better him than me. Got to the bottom of the hill and breathed a big sigh of relief. Then headed onto the lake road for my 25 km drive to the next Italian autoroute. I didn't realize that these 25 km's were all skinny roads once again with even skinnier tunnels that I grew to just HATE. Especially the one that really skinnied up about mid way, on a curve, and where I was the lead car that came face to face with a big eurobus. My heart sunk and I thought "uh oh, this is definately it, there's no way we're both going to fit here." Both of us slammed on our brakes and came as close to our respective walls as possible. There was some sort of BMW god watching down on me that morning, I swear there was no more than a millimeter between the passenger side and the wall and my side and the bus. I actually shut my eyes briefly waiting for the big sideswipe to happen but it didn't. Got out of the car at the first rest stop I could find to calm down and make sure I didn't shit myself. Finally got to the autoroute an hour or so later and was more than happy to pay tolls for the priviledge of driving in normal sized lanes at way above normal speeds again.

Towards the Italian riviera the tunnels (big ones now) started getting more and more frequent. They too were interesting for awhile (the engine sounds once again) but after awhile, and with the right lanes constantly filled with big euro trucks going much slower than regular traffic, I started to hate them. The French autoroute continued the same theme once I got into their half of the Riviera and I was glad to get off when I got near my coastal town, St. Raphael, for the next couple of days. Christine had done it once again with sending me to some hotel that required 20 km's of twisty mountain driving to get to but the French do their fun roads better. They're wider and marked with a centre line - not that many French drivers pay attention to it!! The coastal/mountain road was much more fun with speeds averaging 60-80 km/hr in mostly 50 posted zones. You just couldn't do 50 and besides, this was about the first place I could push the handling. Much, much better.

Got to my "pension" and spent the next two days there. It was on the Mediterranean and very, very pretty (Pics 1,2,3)

Couple days later left the ocean and headed towards the country - Aix en Provence. Another day of driving an expensive autoroute system with expensive gas but again, what the hell. And the Autogrills were in France too, now equiped with baguettes, wonderful meats and cheeses....just great food. It was a short driving day so I reached my beautiful Provencal-styled hotel early afternoon. Wow. Surrounded by huge maple trees, looking over a river at the drinking patio that I soon claimed as my own, overshadowed by the Roquefavour Aqueduct....life was good (Pics 4 and 5)) And they gave me my own private parking spot in the garden (Pic 6). A day and a half of relaxation was order. Dinner that night was gourmet and very French....just wonderful.

Went into the city of Aix en Provence the next day to pick up "my stash" (a new bottle) after travelling on country roads for about 1/2 an hour. Once again, skinny little things that scared the shit out of me on a couple of occasions but very nice overall, lots of room to see who was coming at you and move over in time. Provence is wine country and the scenery, vineyards, etc. was beautiful. When I got into Aix en Provence it may has well been Paris. The city was packed with cars and buses and I thought "how is this possible." I'd find out the next day. I got out as soon as I could, found a large grocery store and mall on the way and picked up some fantastic French snacks....and my beloved bottle of course. Back to the hotel and then some hiking followed by dinner and drinks. A fabulous meal again.

During the walk I checked the car and noticed the winds were picking up. And picking up again. Then I heard tree limbs crashing down and watched in horror as one of them fell right in front of me. What the hell was happening now???? I looked around for somewhere else to park the car but the whole place was covered with century's old maple trees. I went inside and asked the owner about the winds. She said "Ahhh....Le Mistral has arrived." These are the "winds" of southern France apparently. For fuck sake. Why couldn't they have waited for a couple of days. So now I was worried about the trees crashing down on the car but I just drank heavily to get over it.

Next morning I got up and ran out to check the car. Sure enough there was a tree limb on the windshield along with dirt and other crap thrown up by the winds. Thankfully (once again), the limb apparently fell onto the glass and not the fragile hood or expensive roof. No damage. Big sigh of relief....and time to get heading back to my next destination near Dijon in the Burgundy region of France and away from these stupid winds.

Well that trip started out quite nicely except for the time that I mistakenly went through the electronic toll booth in the transponder lane because the stupid Navi lady told me to keep left as I approached the toll booth. How embarassing. Cars behind honking, everyone staring at me and no where to go because the gate wouldn't let me through. And just my luck....this was one of those toll stations completely electronic with no staff around. After pleading with someone to let me pay for their transponder for a few minutes (which didn't work because they understood absolutely NO english), the gate magically rose and I dashed off to get through it. Next stop....explaining at the next pay station why I didn't have a toll card. Fuck me, I wanted to go home about now.

And then I hit the traffic jam of all traffic jams. I didn't get to my destination (an hour away) for more than 4 hours. Where the hell were all these people coming from and going to???? (Pic 7) Well once I crawled into Nuit St. Georges (Pic 8), a small rural town in the Burgandy region, the Scottish owners of my little Pension told me that it had been a "long weekend" holiday in France and that most everyone spends their time in the south. Oh for fuck sake, why didn't anyone tell me this!!! Anyways, a nice quiet night in the pension was in order and the owners felt so sorry for me that they invited me to dinner. It was really nice of them and quite a treat to not have dinner alone. Only problem....no ice in the place. This Europe thing was killing my cocktail hour habits!!!

Off to bed after calling home and time to head back to Germany the next day.

Last post everyone. Sorry for the length but I just wanted to make sure you're all aware of some of the problems or worries that go along with the ED program.....aside from all the cool stuff of course.

Excepting the bloody roosters that woke me up in Nuit St. Georges in the morning, it was definately going to be a nice day. Had breakfast in the early a.m. and packed up for my next leg of the trip....to Seebach, Germany in the Black Forrest region. I chose a bit of a longer route to avoid going in and out of Switzerland and having to pay 40 euros for a "road tax" or whatever it is they call it. The trip on the French autoroutes was uneventful, lots of good food again at the Autogrills and I entered into Germany again about 5 p.m. Nice to know that my toll-paying days were over. There was a beautiful gas station/restaurant as soon as I crossed the border and it had the most wonderful self-spray car wash I'd ever seen. The little things in life were starting to impress me too much.....now I knew it was time to be heading home. I gave the car a good spray (but no wiping!!!), stocked up on some more "essential supplies" and headed towards the mountain town of Seebach. What a pleasant drive and perfect for winding the motor up and down the rev range as I passed through some smaller towns and up into the forrest region. Nice roads, actually wide enough for a car for a change. Absolutely ZERO mobile phone coverage though. Oh well.

Checked into my Pension which was located in a residential neighborhood on the side of a mountain, had a couple of regional German beers and then walked into the village for supper at a neat little hotel that had GREAT food. Hiked back home and relaxed on my terrace with a few more beers and some rain to put me to sleep. The car was nice and safe tonight, parked on its own cobblestone driveway. No trees, no winds, no birds....perfect (Pic 1)

Next morning I was up and out the door early after a great German breakfast, had to be in Munich for 1:30 pm for my 2000 km's mandatory service. Christine and Michael had booked the appointment for me because I didn't want the car sitting on the docks or the boat for who knows how many weeks with "old" oil in it.

So off I went for my final long distance drive. The car had just over 2000 km's by this time and the computer was telling me that service was "overdue". Told it to take a pill and calm down....it was coming.

Some of the autobahn on the way home was plagued with construction (as UCLA had reported between Stuttgart and Munich) but it wasn't as bad as I expected. The biggest problem was getting by the hundreds of euro trucks who had to navigate through the mountains in the slow lane. Generally, it kept everyone else up until we got into flatter territory. The autoroute in this area is only 2 lanes wide so thusly, the slowdowns were expected.

But then, with a couple of hours to go, the autobahn opened up for the most part and seeing that I was over my break-in period, I thought that I'd push the car to 180-200 km/h range for a bit. Wow, how perfectly stable and normal these speeds are for this car!!! Quite truthfully, it was still a bit daunting to be travelling at these speeds but only because I'm naturally leery of the actions of other drivers, not me. As well trained as the drivers are in Germany (and most of Europe for that matter), you just never know. So I kept it reasonable. But it was still a thrill. I just can't imagine driving 100-120 km/h back at home any more. It'll be like walking. One thing I won't miss.....watching the gas gauge actually move at these speeds. Never seen this before - amazing!!!!

I arrived at BMW/MINI AG Niederiassung (about 10 minutes walk from the Welt and my hotel) at exactly 1:29 p.m. and met with Uli Buttner the Service Advisor who welcomed me with open arms. They had the car for a couple of hours while I checked back in to the Sheraton and prepared for my Museum tour later that afternoon. Picked the car up at 4:00 p.m. all shiny and new and paid the 576.00 Euro bill (which BMW Canada will reimburse me for). Uli told me that they'd washed it by hand. This guy I believed....no doubt he'd been prepped by Christine and Michael who told them how anal I was about such things (Pic 2).

Drove the car back to the Welt's underground parking for the night and then went to the BMW Museum....which was just excellent. Others have posted museum pics here and the stuff is on-line so I won't bother. If you go, you have to see this place.

Spent the evening winding down with some good food and a few cocktails before calling it a night. One day to go.

May 19th Drop Off

How sad. Time to drop off the car at Harms (now called Log In/Log Out) and call it a day. Gave the car a final going-over, took out everything that was loose (except the floor mats) and drove out to Garching to the drop off location. Christine called to check up on me and ask if there were any problems. None to report. The adventures with the car were exactly as she had described with her "no risk, no fun" attitude. I can't say enough about the people of BMW....they were just the best and I'll never forget it. And about the car.....well you guys all know how fantastic the M3 is and I am very priviledged to own one now. I truly believe that the next version with the turbo'd six just won't be the same. Our motor is simply intoxicating and there's no other way to describe it.

Handed my key (I got to keep one for a souvenier) over to the Harms people at 2:30, completed my paperwork and had the car inspected for shipment. The office manager said he'd never seen a ED car with 2400 km's on it with absolutely no blems. Man, was I proud. And amazed considering all that I'd gone through. The car performed flawlessly and I experienced ZERO issues (except for that Navi lady who made me go into the wrong toll lane in France). Good old Rolph picked me up and drove me back into Munich for my last night - and then again to the airport at 4:30 a.m. next morning). It was raining, cold and windy by this point.....just fucking miserable. How fitting now that the car was gone from my grasp for a month or so. Oh well, a nice dinner at the Welt and a few good-bye cocktails saved the day.

So that's it. I can't wait for the car to be sent over to Canada. And now the mods begin I guess????

My wife picked me up in Toronto when I landed on Thursday. I drove home (the family/dog wagon is an XC60 which I just love) and as suspected, doing 120 km/h was like walking. HOW THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE MANAGE YOUR M3's IN NORTH AMERICA?????

I hope this helps some of you who might be thinking of ED. It's definately NOT for the faint of heart. However, if your mindset is "it's just a car" (as Christine also told me), well you'll have a blast.

Would I do it again??? For sure.....but in someone else's M3 this time!!!

And this forum is just great by the way. Bimmerfest has its good points but M3 Post just rocks.

Mark's M....wow what an amazing car and if i may ask, how do you have the pull to get an M3 bassically fully custom made for yourself? . God every day i go back and forth between a 335is and a M3...but this thread wants me wanna have one, get it via ED and drool all over it at the Welt..hell i'll take the sedan even!

Hey John, hope the rest of your stay was good and enjoy your car when it gets home. Any idea if it its on a boat yet???. Oh and I hope you don't mind, took off our last names from the list.

Le'me know when it gets in, curious to see how long it'll be.

Take care and good meeting you - Mark

Nice meeting you too Mark.

Actually I noticed that and I don't mind at all. Thanks for doing that.

Your SA will know. She told me the 26th it's going on the boat. I live in NJ, and the dock is in NJ as well. So my time might be shorter than yours after the boat. I heard 1-2 weeks at the Prep Center. Then your dealership. So figure 2-4 weeks after Day 1 on the boat.